HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



555 



company in New York city. He is well 

 known in marine circles, and enjoys the 

 confidence and esteem of his employers 

 and associates. He married December 

 30, 1858, Sarah Scott, daughter of Amos 

 V. and Elizabeth (Hellings) Scott, of 

 Bensalem, and granddaughter of Jacob 

 and Esther Scott. This union was 

 blessed with the birth of five children: 

 William, born June 26, i860, died in in- 

 fancy; Amos Scott, born July 4, 1862, 

 see forward; John Wilmot, born Janu- 

 ary 9, 1864, died young; Albert G., born 

 October 31, 1868, deceased; George Rus- 

 sell, born November 30, 1871. Amos S. 

 and George R. were educated in the 

 Friends' school at Langhorne. 



Amos Scott Flowers was married Oc- 

 tober 9, 1884, to Frances Robinson, 

 daughter of William Massey and Frances 

 (Perry) Robinson, who was born in Eng- 

 land and came to Bucks county with her 

 parents when quite young. In 1884 

 Amos Scott Flowers bought a farm near 

 Woodbourne, upon which he took up his 

 residence, and has since followed the 

 vocation of a farmer. He and his wife 

 have been the parents of two children — ■ 

 William Massey, born September 22,, 

 1885, died March 21, 1898; and Elizabeth 

 Ann, born August 27, 1887. 



THOMAS BUTLER CLAXTON, of 

 Lower Buckingham, was born on the 

 farm upon which he still resides, in 

 Buckingham township, June 6, 1852, a 

 son of John Bankson, and Sarah W. 

 (Thompson) Claxton. George Claxton, 

 grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 

 was a native of the West Indies, and was 

 for many years captain of the ship 

 "Providence," plying between the West 

 Indies and ports of the United States. 

 The declining years of his life were spent 

 at the home of his son, John Bankson 

 Claxton, on the Buckingham farm. John 

 Bankson Claxton was born in Philadel- 

 phia. His younger days were spent in 

 the employ of the publishing house later 

 known as J. B. Lippincott & Company, 

 in that city, the present members of the 

 firm being fellow employees with him. 

 At the age of fifteen years, on the ad- 

 vice of the family physician that he 

 seek an outdoor life, he came to Buck- 

 ingham and found employment on the 

 farm where the remainder of his life 

 was spent, then owned and conducted by 

 Thomas M. Thompson, whose daughter 

 he subsequently married. At the death 

 of his father-in-law he acquired the farm, 

 and spent the remaining years of his life 

 in agricultural pursuits. He was an ac- 

 tive and influential man in the commun- 

 ity, and a member of the local school 

 board for a number of years. In relig- 

 ion he was a staunch Presbyterian, a 

 member of the Thompson Memorial 

 Church of Lower Solebury, which was 

 rebuilt and named in memory of his 



father-in-law, Thomas M. Thompson, 

 who was for thirty-four years an elder 

 of the church and one of its most active 

 supporters and workers. Mr. Claxton 

 died in 1875, at the age of fifty-two years. 

 The Buckingham farm had .been the 

 property of the maternal ancestors of 

 the subject of this sketch for nearly a 

 century prior to its acquisition by his 

 father, having been purchased by his ■ 

 great-grandfather, John Wilson, Esq., 

 whose home it was for a half century. 

 He was of Scotch-Irish descent, his 

 father, John Wilson, a native of the north 

 of Ireland, having settled in Lower 

 Buckingham, in 1737, on the farm now 

 comprising the farms owned by Harry F. 

 Molloy and Warner C. Thompson.* 

 John Wilson, Jr., was a justice of the 

 peace in Buckingham for twenty-five 

 years, and one of the most prominent 

 justices of his day, doing an immense 

 amount of official business, as his docket,, 

 now in possession of the writer of this 

 sketch, will testify. His home seems to 

 have been a favorite "Gretna Green," as 

 he married over four hundred couples 

 during his term of office, many of them 

 coming a considerable distance to have 

 the nuptial knot tied. He died in 1811. 

 Of his five daughters, three married 

 Thompsons, one of them, Elizabeth, be- 

 ing the grandmother of the subject of 

 this sketch. 



The Union school house, located at 

 the north corner of Mr. Claxton's farm, 

 was originally built on land dedicated for 

 that purpose by Thomas M. Thompson, 

 and the title still vests in the successors 

 to the trustees then appointed, though 

 it has long been under the control of 

 the Buckingham school board. 



John Bankson and Sarah (Thompson) 

 Claxton, were the parents of four chil- 

 dren, two of whom survive: Thomas B.; 

 and William Neeley Claxton, of Hale 

 count3% Texas. 



Thom.as B. Claxton was born and 

 reared on the home farm, acquiring his 

 education at the public school, at the Ex- 

 celsior Normal Institute at Carvers- _ 

 ville, and Doylestown English and Class-' 

 ical Seminary. On the death of his 

 father he assumed control of the farm, 

 and after his mother's death acquired 

 the title thereto. He was married Oc- 

 tober 12, 1876, to Mary Lester Fell, 

 daughter of David and Margaret (Atkin- 

 son) Fell, who died in 1899. They were 

 the parents of two children: Lewis Fell, 

 and Frances Elizabeth, wife of Justus W. 

 Kirk, who now conducts the home farm. 

 Mr. Claxton married (second) Martha 

 C. Elv, daughter of Isaac and Mary 

 (Magill) Ely of Solebury. 



In politics Mr. Claxton is a Republi- 

 can but has never held other than local 



*Warner C. Thompson, who is a preat-great-grand- 

 son of John Wilson, Sr., has the original deed from 

 John and Richard Penn to John Wilson, dated Decem- 

 ber 15, 1737. 



